New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at the iconic Galeries Lafayette in Nice, France, which will enable Indian travellers visiting the country to make seamless payments abroad through familiar platforms.

“Bringing India’s world-class digital payments platform to one of France’s premier retail destinations marks another significant step in UPI’s global expansion. With the participation of Lyra Collect and NIPL, this initiative showcases India’s ability to deliver trusted, seamless, and interoperable digital solutions at scale,” the minister said in a post on X after the launch.

“The launch further strengthens the economic and technological ties between India and France, reflecting the growing depth and ambition of our strategic partnership,” he added.

This digital payment corridor represents a major shift in how commerce operates between the two countries, delivering immediate benefits of enhanced traveller convenience by eliminating the friction of physical currency exchange, carrying large amounts of cash, or navigating unfamiliar foreign exchange fees.

It will also give an economic boost to French businesses, which will gain immediate access to a massive, tech-savvy Indian visitor demographic, driving higher transaction volumes. The local merchants will also experience optimised cash management, lowered overhead costs associated with physical cash handling, and secure, real-time transaction settlements, a senior official said.

France is the second country this month in which UPI has been launched, after Cambodia on June 3. The breakthrough collaboration went live following a formal ceremony in Phnom Penh, attended by Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, alongside high-level representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The event marked the completion of Phase 1 in establishing a cross-border QR payment linkage between the two nations through Bakong’s KHQR, Cambodia’s national QR code, the statement said.

The first phase enables millions of Indian travellers to make seamless QR payments at over 4.5 million Cambodian merchants, with a two-way corridor to follow. While the first phase prioritises incoming Indian travellers, the partnership is explicitly designed to scale. In the subsequent phase, the corridor will become fully bi-directional. Cambodian citizens visiting India will soon be able to use their domestic banking and digital payment applications to scan millions of UPI QR codes throughout India, completing a highly advanced, two-way interoperable financial network.

–IANS

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